Explorations

Inner Circle

Timeline

8 week solo project, Spring 2025

Mentors

Simon Herzog, Jose Chavvaria, Chris Downs

Inner Circle is a nightly, screen-free ritual where teen friends share honest reflections through a connected lamp. A gentle AI voice mediates sharing, fostering trust, reciprocity, and emotional growth.

The shape of the gramophone is a nostalgic artefact from the past for playing different records, here the tags have the same purpose and represent a close circle of friends, storing their respective reflections. A warm glow from the device intervenes at night-time everyday with a subtle reminder and when the teenager shows intention by pressing the glowing middle platform, AI voice takes over with an emotional question to mediate the reflection, listening to maintain a kind and safe space for teens to be vulnerable.

The voice analysis and speech-to-text is powered by local LLMs, Whisper and Meta's Llama 3.2, as privacy was key for this project. Eleven labs voice generation API is behind the AI voice. The device has an Arduino inside connected to a processing sketch which calls python scripts to access the AI programs. When a friend has shared their reflection, their tag station lights up with a unique light, and the NFC powered tags play the reflection audios when placed on the platform, in sync with the LED lights.

TLDR

Inner Circle was designed to help teens build deeper, more honest friendships in a world that often values performance over connection. It’s grounded in the belief that technology, when quiet and intentional, can create space for real emotions.

Here, AI acts not as a friend, but as a gentle bridge -supporting reflection, guiding conversation, and helping teens truly show up for one another.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

This project began with something personal. I noticed how the young people around me - friends - were turning to AI not just for answers, but for comfort. They’d say things like, “I don’t want to bother anyone,” and instead, they'd open a chatbot. That stuck with me.

Are we starting to hand over our emotional moments to AI?

DIVING DEEP

As I dug deeper, I noticed a gap: most research in this area leaves out people under 18.

And yet, teenagers are often the ones most affected—they’re navigating intense emotional changes and forming their first relationships. If anyone is turning to AI during these formative years, shouldn't we be paying closer attention?

UNDERSTANDING THE MISUNDERSTOOD

Teenagers often get a bad rap—they’re labelled as moody, careless, or lazy, but that’s such a surface-level view. Behind all that, they’re navigating huge emotional shifts and a world that doesn’t always take them seriously.

They need to be seen and understood deeply. So I immersed myself in their world through desk research, 1:1 interviews, workshops and co-creation sessions.

RESEARCH LEARNINGS

Teenagers’ brains are wired for risk-taking and peer influence, yet their emotional regulation is still developing, making their relationships particularly sensitive to new forms of interaction like AI companions.

15 TEENAGERS

3 HIGH SCHOOLS

4 EDUCATORS

3 PSYCHOLOGISTS

INSIGHT #1

Lack of trust between peers

“I dont want to be seen as a person who is always sad or has problems. I just want to be a good friend and be there for other people.”

INSIGHT #2

AI becomes a safe space for messy feelings

“I do feel like talking to somebody.
Like I’ll scroll through my contacts sometimes
literally one by one —
and it’s like no… no… nah... definitely not...
I just go to chatgpt, I’ve changed the settings to talk to me like Gen-z“

INSIGHT #2